A couple of months ago I had the opportunity to see reunited legendary Heavy Metal act Accept perform at this year's Rockwave Festival, here in  Greece. I was really looking forward to that as I - just like a lot of other classic metalheads - grew up listening to stuff like Breaker(1981), Balls To The Wall (1984), Metal Heart (1985) etc. It was quite cool because I don't know if I'd ever get the chance to see them again but on the other hand I reached a negative conclusion together with good ol' Grigoris from the magazine. We agreed that Udo Dirkschneider's voice has really taken the downfall. We agreed that it's probably about time he quit putting out records with U.D.O. and maybe just focused on doing one or two world tours with Accept every once in a while. Unfortunately Mission No. X came to justify our conclusion in the worst possible way...
To start off I have to say that reviewing Mission No. X was a Mission Impossible for me as it can't suck any worse when one of your all-time favorite Heavy Metal heroes creates something this monstrous... and you have to review it. I mean, after Thunderball (2004) I was hoping for something even better...not worse!
Produced and mixed by the band's guitarist, Stefan Kaufmann, Mission No. X displays a kind of a rush by Mr. Udo to put out another record in just a year's passing. Doesn't he ever feel exhausted at his age? I mean, after releasing Thunderball he toured the world with U.D.O., then did the reunion tour with Accept and somewhere in the meantime he recorded Mission No. X. Having in mind that both Accept and U.D.O. gained most of their fame due to the excellent combination of Udo's distinguishing vocals with the kick-ass Heavy Metal riffing, it becomes quite apparent to you the moment you finish listening to Mission No. X that one of the two aforementioned ingredients has gone...to hell. And at points so have the musical ideas. What's with Mean Streets? Half of it sucks and half of it is uhm...ok (just the refrain). But what's with the Rap-ish vocals? Then you've got really boring songs like Stone Hard, Way Of Life, Primecrime On Primetime or totally mediocre tracks like Shell Shock Fever, Breaking Down The Borders or Mad For Crazy which totally fail in their attempt to touch moods like that of Accept's Breaker. Then you've got the usual recipe of let's throw a ballad somewhere in there which U.D.O. seem to always follow in their latest releases and so you've got Cry Soldier Cry. Finally, one track I kind of liked was 24/7 and that I don't even know why by now, after all these negative feelings the rest of the album gave me. Yeah, this album is probably THAT uninspired...
I've never been an ass-kisser when it comes to big bands fucking up. So, just like I did with Dokken's Hell To Pay, Queensryche's The Art Of Live and Blaze's Blood And Belief - among others - which totally sucked, Mission No. X won't get treated by me in any other way... I just hope that Udo realizes it's time he gave it a rest or at least a break...or something.